Basic Jazz Fingerpicking
This lesson introduces you to the basics of Jazz fingerpicking. Simple chords are used in conjunction with a basic right hand picking technique. It will be important to be comfortable with all the examples in this lesson before continuing through the book.
Bass Chord Style - Second Position
A popular fingerpicking technique often used in Jazz guitar is the bass chord style. This style involves the right hand thumb playing a bass note and the right hand fingers picking a chord.
Example 160 uses the bass chord style over the root six major bar chord G. The right hand thumb plays the root note (G) on the 6th string. The right hand fingers then pick the 4th, 3rd and 2nd strings at the same time. This technique may require a little practice to coordinate cleanly as well as ensuring a correct balance of tone and volume between the three notes.
The next example uses several root six major bar chords.
Now a progression that uses the root five major bar chord C. This time the right hand thumb plays the root note (C) on the 5th string.
Left Hand Damping
A popular technique that is used in conjunction with the bass chord style is the use of damping. Left hand damping involves stopping the sound of a chord just before it is played again, producing a slight break in sound between each chord.
This produces a "bounce" effect, often used as a form of accompaniment. This technique is used in the next example on the root six dominant seventh bar chord A7. A dash above the chord indicates the damp.
A7
The left hand damp is used in the following progression.
Right Hand Damping
A damp can also be achieved by resting the right hand thumb and fingers back onto the strings just before the next chord is played. This will also cause a slight break in sound between each chord thus producing a bouncy effect to the rhythm.
As you become experienced with Jazz fingerpicking you will use a combination of both left and right hand damping, depending on the situation. Try applying right hand damping to the next example which introduces the root five dominant seventh chord D7.
D7
